Former US White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual was quoted as saying: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste...”
The aftermath of a hurricane present governments with opportunity to expand itself and its powers. Problem is the more regulation there is, the chance of corruption and therefore circumvention occurs.
The term in economics is Rent Seeking.
Not only that, can we build to prevent the devastation caused by a category four or five storm? If so, at what cost?
The cost to build today is already high enough with multiple opportunities for rent seeking - bribes to avoid following the rules - as a result of regulation, why would we want to add to this burden?
Would it be better for government to suggest if people build in certain ways and in certain places they cannot, no, will not, assist in any way in the event of a disaster.
We continue to add to the burden created by bigger government by adding more layers to the behemoth.
It's time for some critical analysis about the proper role of government and how it is actually performing the tasks already assigned to it.
Yet the topic of conversation is simply to add another layer of bureaucracy. And exactly what has that fixed?
Can anyone name a government agency that was created to solve a problem that has accomplished the task and has been shut down?
I suspect this proposed expansion will be no different in spite of all the wonderful rhetoric.
